Welcome to Gaia! ::

He was running out of time.

The hours ticked on against him while Scholomance searched for someone - anyone - to recruit for Benitoite. The general gave him ten days to track down a senshi for disposal. Ten days and seven passed to fruitless searches, to red herrings, to short moral discussions with himself concerning whether compliance could produce as much damage as noncompliance in the end. He dismantled and reassembled the whole conundrum so many times that each piece was known to him intimately, and the act made little difference. He still held this charge. He still found no victims.

His searches grew more erratic as the deadline closed, and still, he found nothing among the war-scarred streets. Scholomance started on using Zalmoxis to cover more ground, and the horse delivered him across rooftops effortlessly. Even with the extra burst of speed a horse provided, however, his searches seldom turned up senshi. The few he found declined to assist him, no matter the story he cooked up; often they turned to their own personal missions and seldom acknowledged him. Hell, he even found one who was against physical confrontation with the Negaverse, even after he explained the altercation that resulted in the loss of his arm and teeth and finger.

So this night, as the icy winds whipped the streets empty, he and Zalmoxis expected nothing more than the same. His chat with Scylla left him frantic and he still needed to commit to the Negaverse's expectations. He had to believe that the resistance he could establish with his ring would justify his abuse in the mean time.

And he had to prove his worth by finding one of these damnable senshi.

Zalmoxis leapt atop the great, expansive flat of a hardware store, and he pulled the reins to pause the beast. His summon waited patiently then, its lulling mist rolling off its hooves in the same slow patterns. Scholomance hardly believed the signature - a super senshi lingered somewhere to the east. With a heel to the flank, Scholomance urged the horse to pursue it with great tenacity. He needed to know if this senshi would buy his story, if they would agree to facing down Benitoite with him.

The star at the periphery of his mind felt unmistakeable - a super senshi, if he remembered his rank properly. A few choice encouragements spurred his horse toward the entity, cresting parapet after parapet in search of a visual. The city spanned long between them, but not to an impossible degree. The figure moved not, and for that, he was grateful.

Another leap, and Zalmoxis landed on the structure. The roof proved smooth, flat, recently tarred in light of the heavy winters. And there, beneath him, stood the super senshi. Huh. Fancy that. Didn't think anyone bothered with ground travel anymore.

Scholomance knew what to say; the only remaining task was to deliver it effectively. Zalmoxis raveled into dust beneath him, and Scholomance executed the drop to the sidewalk level. The thick spine of his coat coiled out behind him in the fall. When he landed, his leg seized with a gripping pain and he struggled momentarily to straighten himself. Otherwise, he appeared unharmed.

"Senshi, I need your help." He approached the boy as quickly as his legs would allow. "I know this is sudden, and you've never seen me at any point in your life but I've minutes to the hour and once ten o'clock rolls around, one of the Negaverse generals is going to kill my sister. Dramatic, I know." Headlights flashed, and he paused just long enough for the car to turn the corner. He dropped his voice. "I'd try him alone, but he's the same one that took my arm.

"Will you help me?" He looked the senshi in the eyes and hoped that eye contact pushed him to acquiescence.

"It's nine," he answered. Scholomance retained ssteely stoicism about himself in the delivery of his lie; he knew better than to trust false expression of emotion. "We can't dally; the meeting place is about twenty minutes on foot, and that's with our increased speed. Come!" Scholomance offered no time to consider his offer, and instead leapt (albeit painfully) onto the previous rooftop. "Follow me!" He called downward.

Running was a matter of warming up his sore joint first - bone heels struck the tarpapered roof intermittently at first until his gait smoothed out to a proper rhythm. From there, cresting the various parapets toward their final destination was a simple matter of mapping through buildings while retaining the general direction of their meeting place. He knew the cross streets by heart, though their high vantage point prevented any navigation via street signs. He would not need it, ultimately; the Negaverse required him at the unopened park often enough that he learned its place in space relatively quickly. And, since his partner proved a healthy super senshi, Scholomance expected that he would keep up well enough - even with the knight's slight advantage in speed (thereby squandered with injury).

Scholomance touched upon one of the higher buildings, an unusually tall apartment complex, and paused just long enough to point toward the burgeoning residential scene on the horizon. "They're down there," he added with a point, and gritted false teeth against the coming incident. He dropped then, staggering his descent across variable rooftops, and reached the street level.

The rest of the journey on foot knew very little interruption - most cars and pedestrians knew better than to meander through the night scene anymore, and Scholomance's morbid visage warded away any potential interactions. Once, someone behind him shouted and ran in the opposite direction. He only looked back to ensure that the super senshi still stuck with him. Scholomance did not ask for a name; he knew better than to apply pet names before a slaughter.

Finally he broached the new sod forming the half-finished park. Occasional sculptures and new saplings greeted them beneath the open moonlight. He knew the feel of the general before he saw the boy, and Scholomance sighed inwardly. Time to march this kid to his death.

Following, SS Pleccio moved as fast as he could. He'd never had to do anything like this, and being able to run full tilt was exhilerating - wonderful. He had so much power and so much responsibility - it was intoxicating.

But now was not the time to think of that - a life hung in the balance. A cold and familiar intensity rose within him, straightening his tired and ecstatic mind into orderly rows, clearing his gaze for observation. He logged every move, noted every turn, took inventory of his powers and strategies he could use in a hostage situation... he approached what might well be a battle like a surgeon.

"Here?" he said, a little sharper than before, confirming. Residential. People were here (usually). Witnesses. But that wouldn't matter - no one would recognize him. Not that there were many people around. The numbers of the nocturnal had dwindled even during Pleccio's time as a senshi. Smart.

He continued, wanting to ask more questions: what is their powerset, who am I dealing with, are there other hostages... but the pace was too fast.

The park - a foe! SS Pleccio could feel it from here, an internal growth blighting the world... chaos. But his job, as surgeon and senshi, was to excise that growth, to heal the world. At least, that was what he thought he understood. He stood up straight and marched forward.
Something was off about the... person's... words. Something not quite jiving with what the horribly battered man had said, Where is his sister? being one such thing. Either way, though, he knew an enemy when he saw it, and he knew he had a duty to oppose it.

He struck a pose on complete instinct. "Super Sailor Pleccio!" he intoned, "And I will rip your evil to shreds!"

Well. As battle cries went, it needed some work, but it felt good to get it off, and it felt... also... good to summon his powers and strengthen himself. He was ready for a fight... at least he thought he was.

Looking over the senshi, as he gave his name and some little quip about ripping him to shreds - oh how cute! And slowly he brought his hands up and clapped. "Oh how delightful. A little one who thinks he can touch me...much less defeat me." The words were said with an edge of excitement tainting them, the smile on his lips anything but friendly but it did show his excitement - clearly.

Stepping forward, toward the knight he nodded his head once. "You did well. This little one is perfect. It doesn't hurt that he has spunk..." Or something similar, though he also clearly lacked in intelligence. He didn't see a set up...nor did he realize he was in over his head against a General? What a pity...not that he'd go gentle on the senshi because of that, not a chance.

"Of course, I'll tell them that you did your part, no worries. I do keep my end of deals." Unless the deal brokered was never meant to go through how the other person thought it was. This however was what it was and there was no back stabbing to be had here. "Do you plan on staying and watching?" He questioned, his dark eyes shifting to the other in silent question. Would the knight remain here and watch as he took the little senshi's life? Already his weapon was summoned and held in one gloved hand. Fingers, small and slender, wrapped about the shaft comfortably.

Passing by Scholomance he made his way toward the senshi, closing the distance slowly. The heels of his boots clicked against the ground, his weapon held with the blade pointing toward the ground. "Painful..perhaps but it will be fast. I don't tend to dally about when dealing out death." Not unless they were special cases...there were some he wanted to drag it out of them...watch them bleed and see the light go out slowly. The idea actually sent a shiver of pleasure up him. It was a sad thing that those few he hadn't seen in so very long, he did hope no one else had taken their lives - those were his lives to snuff out!

"Come little senshi...fight me if you dare." He wouldn't go easy. He would make this fast and take them out. There was however no reason to keep them from trying to save their own life.

Scholomance weighed internally whether watching for the end result would prove worthwhile. But what was there to learn of it? Already he understood that his actions brokered a heavy impact over lives - in this instance, reaching to the very core of living - and sticking around for the impact only placed him in a precarious position. He knew his own disdain for the visceral nature of violence, and with Benitoite's spear as part of the equation, Scholomance was guaranteed a show of bloodshed. No, perhaps it was better to leave.

He served his part of the bargain and Benitoite confirmed so in his own words. The knight placed no insidiousness beyond the scope of the Negaverse, and certainly Benitoite was suspect of it himself for encouraging such duplicitous behavior in himself, but he would not assume so readily that the general would lie. A starseed, delivered live, proved Scholomance's authenticity. The whole lot of his situation remained an insidious game in which all choices lay in the Negaverse's purview. Ever obligation fulfilled earned no further favor for Scholomance himself, and only served to prevent him from backsliding into the negative. Eventually, they would pace the game so steeply that no amount of complicit behavior on the knight's part could keep him on neutral grounds. Eventually, all pretense would fall away and drag him into the blackened gaps as he struggled for impossible purchase.

An inevitability much like this senshi's death, he knew.

Scholomance distanced himself a couple paces before wholly turning his back to the scene. Scylla would ask of its conclusion, he knew. If not, he would tell her outright. She tried to claim his responsibility in the matter, his dominion over lives not his own, and he disbelieved her that much - even now. But she would feel her own sense of guilt over the matter, for not overriding his autonomy in choice and the autonomy of others. Both portions of the war spelled a lack of freedom in their own way. Was it better to opt for destruction? Scholomance levied a single look back before he carried on into the darkness.

His work was finished, and the senshi would die. In another week, they would ask further tasks of him. They would escalate. Perhaps, in a month's time, they would seek his starseed on their own. How long could this go on? Scholomance didn't know, but he recognized that he needed to do something before he ended up like Pleccio.

At first, it was hope.

Pleccio's charge was uninterrupted, his power manifested in his fists, strength from the stars powering him. It was something bigger than him, something bigger than the world, a greater purpose that he could fulfill. Right here. Right now.

Then it was confusion.

Where had the general gone? He'd been there, just a moment ago, just then. Oh no... wait... Pleccio realized that the general hadn't gone anywhere at all. Just moved, a little. Pleccio staggered, trying to turn, but...

Then, finally, it was numbness.

The weapon collided, and Pleccio was stunned. On the ground, recovering with the power afforded him by his star, but confused. And weakened. He was pinned, realizing, as awareness tried desperately to claw itself to the surface, that he was trapped and on the ground.

Despair. He was trapped. He couldn't get up and move, not fast enough to stop whatever was going to happen.

Pain.

Terror.

Something being taken from him, something that shouldn't be. Power leaving him that shouldn't be. A heart, beating suddenly way too fast.A struggle. A sudden sob. A moment of futile resistance. Pain.

Only a moment. And then nothing.

SS Pleccio was dead, and a starseed was in the General's hand, shining with power and purity but oh-so-fragile.